Sir, - Your correspondent Mr Shaw (October 17th) quite rightly points out that he has missed the point of the sea trout controversy. The fact is that after seven years of reports, investigations and costly monitoring, no credible link whatsoever has been established to connect salmon farms with any real or perceived decline in sea trout numbers.
The weight of the "scientific" argument by anti fish farm individuals is accurately summed up by your other recent correspondents on the issue, who rely on anecdote and conjecture as established "facts". The strength of evidence used to damn our industry has never been any more convincing than unsubstantiated stories about counting fish from a kitchen window, or recalling a day's fishing in 1957. Time and again, when objective scientists make the effort to check the facts on the ground about lice biology or the state of fish stocks, the anecdotes and speculation about fish farm involvement are found to be without foundation.
Father Horan (October 18th) inadvertently makes our point very clear. He complains that he has never caught sea trout in certain areas of North Sligo since 1957 and 1973. In this case, it is extremely difficult to find even the most tenuous connection with fish farms.
The fact is that the very first marine farm didn't appear in Ireland until the late 1970s, in Connemara, and that the nearest farms to North Sligo today are located in Killybegs and Clare Island. With all due respect to Father Horan, one has to have a very narrow outlook to connect fish farming with any of the experiences he recounts.
Before the country is wall papered with letters to the Times attacking fish farm jobs under the guise of concern for "vanishing" sea trout, we appeal to those who are truly concerned about the future for this animal to go out and seek the truth for themselves. Before joining the unjustified rush to convict fish farmers, they should visit farms and talk to fish farmers, talk to those very few objective people who have actively gone out to fish for sea trout in the West of Ireland recently, and talk to fishery owners whose opinions are not coloured by their involvement in court cases.
Those who make an effort can be guaranteed a completely different story to that normally spun by anti fish firm activists - one of healthy trout stocks, active fish farms with important jobs, and absolutely no connection between sea trout and fish farms. - Yours, etc.,
Executive secretary,
Irish Salmon Growers'
Association,
Irish Farm Centre,
Bluebell,
Dublin 12.